Truancy rule carries taint of class war

Let's be clear: Any child who is eligible for school ought to be in school.

That's especially important for children whose parents receive welfare assistance. Education is a vital means for breaking the chains of poverty, something on which leaders of all political perspectives agree.

The Michigan Department of Human Services' new rule, which took effect Monday, could be viewed as a way to ensure children on welfare don't waste their chance for an education. The MDHS is monitoring the school attendance of children on welfare ages 6 to 15 years old. If any of them are found to be consistently absent from class, their families will lose their cash assistance.

The goal is to make parents more responsible. Advocates argue that's nothing more than tough love.

What troubles some critics of the policy is this nagging question: Why should the children of welfare families be the only targets?

The answer is simple, of course. Those children are at the mercy of the state.

School truancy isn't a problem exclusive to kids on welfare. It cuts across economic and ethnic lines. Chronic absences put students at risk of losing the chance for an education, whatever their background.

But the consequences now weigh heaviest on children - and their families - on the welfare rolls. Although the rule purportedly is aimed at forcing parents to get their acts together, the collateral damage harms the children, too.

If one child in a family receiving welfare benefits is found to be chronically truant from school, the cash assistance stops. The truant child's siblings who aren't skipping school are out of luck, too.

In taking the hard line on truants, the MDHS might be holding parents more accountable, but everyone suffers.

If we know nothing else about the poor, we know they are easy targets. They are fodder for politicians who say poverty is their fault, and welfare recipients are always accused of not doing enough for the assistance they receive.

The new rule probably will improve the school attendance of welfare recipients. But the policy would have more effect if the MDHS also took steps to determine why some of its clients don't attend class and devised less punitive ways to encourage them to show up to school.